Random set of the day: Helicopter Transport
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6328 Helicopter Transport, released in 1998. It's one of 61 Town sets produced that year. It contains 102 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$15.
It's owned by 1197 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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18 comments on this article
I remembered when I got this for my birthday when I was a kid. Back then I was excited because it had cool vertical mufflers. I remembered the fun of driving the truck and pulling the trailer on the floor all over the house.
All the weird Bionicle hockey players and Clikits sets make juniorized town sets look pretty sweet. I like the trans green pieces.
I got the glorious Metro PD Station the year before for Christmas. My LEGO Island Town was almost there. But in 1998, things nose-dived into mediocrity. This set is a prime example. It seems so bare, lacking cohesion in its color scheme and dominated by a rudimentary, simplistic set design (what happened to opening doors, a retractable roof, and headlights that had to be constructed?) that yes, was blatantly apparent to 9 year-old me. It was so disappointing. It was the end of LEGO Town for me.
For those of you who were younger than me in 1998, I don't fault you for appreciating this set and its ilk. You were too young to know any better, and so, your memories now are clouded by nostalgia. Thankfully, you lived to see a new Golden Age arise. But I have not forgotten the grandeur of the LEGO System in its heyday a quarter of a century ago.
Eugh. I think I preferred the Clikits and Bionicle Hockey League to late 90s Town Jr sets.
I'm a huge fan of City Police (the police sets that came out in '93, '94? I think I managed to pick up every single one of them), but I was never into the Town Jr police sets. I even didn't mind the trans-green windows colour scheme ... but not enough to actually purchase any of them.
I never really understood the reasoning behind Town Jr, and I still don't, to be honest. It's like, Lego forgot the point of its own products, and I think things have to be going wrong, behind-the-scenes, for your decision-making to be that far off-balance.
Most of my earliest sets were Town Junior. I'm not sure whether I realized at the time how simplistic they were, but I probably should have, given that my introduction to Lego came through sets like 6398-1 and 6344-1 which my older siblings had. I do remember that shortly after getting my first set, 6474-1, I tried to make a model combining it with 6350-1, and was less than successful.
To see how much of a regression this set was, look up 6336-1: Launch Response Unit released in 1995.
Trans-green windows?? Thank god I don't have a single set with them.
This set is horrible. I bought it because I thought I could make the single-piece tailer into a train wagon. When digging through one of my tubs of mixed pieces, I undoubtedly come up with that large unibody (single use) front every time (with the 6 wheels still attached). I should melt it down for fun.
with the black/white colour scheme and green windscreens, are we sure this isn't a Space Police II set?
Why so negative?
It has printed parts all over and no stickers.
By whoisbiggles in Australia, 26 Oct 2018 06:32
To see how much of a regression this set was, look up 6336-1: Launch Response Unit released in 1995.
=> Or even 6357 (1988)!
Weird how, after a decade of using tiles for the rotor blades, they went right back to using plates?
LEGO should remake this set.
Trans green, yum!
Transgreen cockpit hood, I've got one of those on display at the moment in 6940 - Alien Moon Stalker, classy times!
@Lego Lord Mayorca, having grown up in the 90s (born in '84) I too remember the fantastic sets that Town offered in the early part of that decade. And it wasn't just Town; Space gave us Ice Planet 2002 and a severely underdeveloped Unitron theme, among others, while Pirates gifted us some great sets and then an entire sister theme with Islanders. I feel like Castle started going off the rails first (remember Fright Knights? What a disappointing follow up to the Dragon Masters and Majisto). Space simply ran out of ideas IMO, but neither of those compare to the debacle that was Town Jr. And I would have been 14 in '98, so in high school, when Lego isn't cool anymore, and focused on other things - I'm now a music teacher so trumpet was my M.O. for a long time. It took me until a couple years ago to get back into the hobby and rebuilding and organizing my collection, and seeing which sets have aged well, like the Paradisa Lighthouse and Pizza-To-Go, which in my opinion is one of the top 5 sets they've ever made, has been fascinating. And of course, there are others that have aged like milk - lookin' at you, 6506 Precinct Cruiser. Especially as my now-former coworkers at my local Lego store where I ended up working part time for 4 years are only really familiar with the more modern sets that have come out....the 90s heyday exists only in pictures for most of them.
The contrast between the intricately detailed chrome mufflers and the single 2x12 brick which doubles as the tail of the helicopter weirds me out
I feel like Lego was at the top of their game for about a decade, 1987-1996. Space had Blacktron, Futuron, Space Police, M-Tron, and Ice Planet 2002 during that period, Pirates came out in 1989 and were awesome until about 1995, most of the best town sets came out in 1987-1991 (Victory Lap Raceway, Metro Park and Service Tower, Airport Shuttle, Launch and Load Seaport are some examples), castle had awesome sub-themes like the Dragon Knights, Black Knights, Forestmen and Wolfpack. Aquazone came out in 1995 and opened up a whole new world underwater. And Western sets came out in 1996, providing even more fun adventures. 1997-98 Town started to severely juniorize, Space seemed to fizzle out with UFO and Insectoids (both with giant specialized pieces and gimmicky fiber optic functions), Pirates died a horrible death for over a decade, and Castle's Fright Knights were not up to par to previous castle subthemes in my opinion. There were definitely bright spots at the end of the decade - the beginning of Adventurers, the short but great stint of Ninja, the debut of Mindstorms, and the foray into licensed themes with Star Wars. But sadly the 4 perceived "evergreen" themes all kind of had issues. Town reincarnated itself with City. The other 3 have mostly been on life support ever since, with attempts to rejuvenate all 3 mostly fizzling out. I know younger people get sick of hearing it, but I very much look forward to the next incarnation of Space, Pirates, and Castle.
^ Everything that a Space line would need to do (ie, ships and bases and robots and aliens)? That's covered by Star Wars (which seems to have become a permanent line). And they make more money from Star Wars stuff, so there's really no reason to go back to generic space-themed sets (aside from the occasional thing like Benny's ship, or whatever).
They tried to fancy-up Castle with Nexo Knights and that was just too gimmicky, and fizzled into nothing. Elves was the closest we got to a genuine Castle line, and probably will be for a while.
Pirates just seems limited. There's only so many ways you can build a pirate ship, you know, and each pirate line is just slight-updates to the sets that came out before, and an Islanders off-shoot would be way too politically-incorrect for a modern release.
I look forward to seeing them again as well, but I also look forward to re-releasing the entire 9V train line, winning the lottery, world peace, etc.